Evander Kane responds for the first time since being suspended.

It was an embarrassing start to the week for Buffalo Sabres forward Evander Kane as a result of the team enforced suspension he earned himself. That suspension also raised some serious questions about Kane's commitment to hockey, after all this wasn't the first team to discipline Kane for his behavior, and on Tuesday Kane did his best to respond to the criticism.

"First and foremost I want to apologize to my teammates for letting them down," said Kane as per NHL.com. "With what happened, me missing practice (Monday) was irresponsible and I take full accountability for my actions with what happened.

"It's something that should have never happened. It's something that I can promise you won't happen again and it's something I'm definitely going to learn from."

Can also addressed how the situation was handled internally, and he seems content with the way it all went down.

"Like I said, we are all on the same page moving forward," Kane said. "I'm happy with that and looking forward to putting this behind me and getting back on the ice."

Kane says his behavior off the ice is not reflective of his on ice performance.

"I think if you watch me play on the ice, I do take hockey seriously," Kane said. "I think I can take it more seriously. I think going forward you are going to see that out of myself."

However Kane says the biggest disappointment came from teammates, who understandbly felt left down, and who Kane feels he let down by forcing the team to discipline him.

"That was probably the hardest thing with everything that went on is I let them down," he said. "I'm obviously extremely disappointed in myself in not being able to go out there and battle with them tonight against Ottawa. For me, I addressed them yesterday as a group and I couldn't have asked for much more from them than the reception I got from them and just how supportive they were. For that, I can really thank them.

"It's something you obviously don't want to be in a situation where you have to [apologize], but it was absolutely necessary. I just wanted to be honest with them and apologize to them because I am sorry for the way things went down the other day. The last thing I want to be doing is sitting out, not playing and not being able to battle with those guys."

Is this a new Evander Kane? I have to be honest I won't be surprised if this comes up again in the future.

[pub]